Coming soon to a book blog near you

Well folks, this is it. In just two days, my sweet husband-to-be Nicholas will become my actual husband. As you can imagine, we are pretty excited about moving forward into married life and enjoying a wonderful honeymoon.

Being the book-obsessed bride-to-be that I am, I just had to bring some books along (of course, it also helps to pass the 10 hours we spent in a car on our way to the wedding site). So next week, you can count on seeing reviews for The Fortune Cookie Chronicles (you will love it!), The Savage Garden, Unchristian and A Poisoned Season.

But more importantly, you'll read those reviews on the brand-spankin' new Shelf Life 2.0. It will have tons more things to love, so keep coming back to us! You want a teaser of the greatness to come? How's an interview with the amazing Professor Philip Freeman sound? It's happened, I'm just waiting to post it on the new site.

So while I'm off getting married this weekend, what will you do to fill your Shelf Life void? Well, a good start would be catching up on the fantastic e-book, The Gearheart. You could also stop by The Domestic Scientist next week for some of the inside looks at the details of the wedding (in addition to being a fabulous human being, Renee is also my Matron of Honor). Or you could amuse yourself with books from The Top Shelf.

No matter how you choose to occupy your time without me, dear readers, look for the new and improved Shelf Life to appear after August 17th. See you all then, and as a married woman to boot!

Review: Bento Box in the Heartland

It seems I just can't get enough of food literature, because although today's offering is my third food-memoir this year, I have loved it every bit as much as the others. Savor this review, readers; it is the last before my wedding this weekend and a long honeymoon in the mountains.

Genre: nonfiction, food memoir

Plot: When author Linda Furiya was growing up in 1960s rural Indiana, her family was the only group of Asian Americans within 30 miles. Her unusual heritage brought about many struggles, but produced a story of family, culture, and most importantly, the food that shapes our identities.

Structure: Furiya's memoir is very loose; that is, it is organized on thematic rather than chronological lines. At the end of each chapter, to my delight, I found that Furiya chose to include a mouthwatering recipe she mentioned in the chapter.

Execution: There is definitly a Japanese aesthetic at play here. Furiya's stories are not happy, not exactly. There is an undertone of subtle sadness in every page, coloring every memory. Perhaps its because death marked her childhood frequently, and neither she nor her parents enjoyed a happy life. Although her early chapters were beautifully structured and had a nice roundness to them, toward the end they became both longer and more abrupt. One recipe was repeated twice, though through printer error or author's intention I do not know. Also, jumping around chronologically worked in terms of storytelling, but sometimes it left me very confused and aching to fill in the gaps. Overall, it lent a sense of privacy to her memoir I think was unintended, as if she was saying, "I will tell you this much but no more."

Theme: Japanese Americans, World War II, Japanese food, 1960s Americana

Read this if you enjoy Asian food at all, this will leave you itching to break out your sushi mats.

4 out of 5 stars

Other works:
Furiya, a newspaper columnist, also wrote about her time in China in her book How to Cook a Dragon.

If you liked this, you might also like:
Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love
Nicole Mones' The Last Chinese Chef
Katherine Darling's Under the Table

Review: The Philosopher and the Druid

I truly surprise myself sometimes! I actually did not expect to get another review posted so soon before the wedding, but today's review title was so good I couldn't help but devouring it. Freeman once again combines superb style, history, and storytelling in a wonderfully informative but warm look at the ancient Celts.

Genre: nonfiction

Plot Synopsis: Forget what you think you know about the Celts. Freeman is out to prove that most of our connotations concerning this much-loved culture is mostly myth and lore. By rediscovering the Greek explorer Posidonius and his lost History, Freeman weaves primary source material with other historical, linguistic, and archaeological discoveries to create a much better picture of the Celtic/Gallic culture. The result is a dazzling, fascinating work that is both historically sound (in my amateur opinion) and an engaging read. Oh that more history books were like this!

Structure: Freeman, author of the delightful St. Patrick of Ireland, has already proved himself to be a capable historian with a flair for storytelling. The Philosopher and the Druid is no different. Freeman first sets the scene by describing the ancient world Posidonius grew up in, including his philosophical point of view and the steps he would have undertaken to understand the Celts/Gauls (Freeman proves they are actually quite closely related) before venturing among them. He divides his work into several chapters. Then, the next five chapters retell the history of the Celtic cultures throughout Europe, organized by their history in several geographic regions (a chapter on Galatia, a chapter on Massalia, etc.) and the cities Posidonius would have visited on his journey to Gaul.

Finally, Freeman tackles what Posidonius and other ancient authors, such as Strabo, Pliny, and Julius Caesar, tell us about every aspect of Celtic life, including women, tribal authority, feasting, bards, druids, and religion.

Execution: As I have mentioned several times, Freeman is anything but dry and boring. He has a natural knack for pacing and storytelling, and I found his prose compelling but professional. It had just enough polish to keep me interested, but not enough that it did disrespect to his work as a historian.

Freeman also possess a great ability to tell us exactly what we can safely know. He never glosses over a problem or a gap in the historical record, but nevertheless tries to fill in the knowledge as best he can. This sort of open, honest but optimistic approach to history makes him very unique among the authors I have read. His unique subject matter and the way he straddles the popular/academic boundary makes him an author I will keep turning to.

Theme: Greco-Roman history, Greek philosophy, Celtic history and culture, archaeology, linguistics, ancient religion/myth

Read this if you are interested, even slightly, in the Greco-Roman world or Celtic history, because believe me, he will make you thirst for more.

5 out of 5 stars

Other works:
Freeman, a professor of classics at Luther College, has also written:
Julius Caesar: A Biography
St. Patrick of Ireland: A Biography

If you liked this, you might also like:
Robert Graves' I, Claudius, based on actual Roman authors like Suetonius, Tacitus and Plutarch, also combines good storytelling with good history